The Official Rackspace Blog » Tobin Behlinghttp://www.rackspace.com/blog
The Official Rackspace BlogTue, 03 Mar 2015 21:57:36 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.1Windows In The Cloud: Choose Your Own Configurationhttp://www.rackspace.com/blog/windows-in-the-cloud-choose-your-own-configuration/
http://www.rackspace.com/blog/windows-in-the-cloud-choose-your-own-configuration/#commentsTue, 06 Nov 2012 20:00:59 +0000http://www.rackspace.com/blog/?p=24461If you are new to the cloud, you might have a question about the type of architecture of your Windows server configuration in the cloud. The answer is that your configuration can look any way that you want it to look.

In the video below, I draw a diagram of a traditional three-layer application configuration that includes web, application and database servers. In the cloud it is very easy to deploy additional servers, as you need them, to your environment. In particular, the Microsoft Web Farm Framework can help you rapidly stand up web servers, replicating all the data over as well as the parameters so that you can immediately begin serving traffic.

As you begin standing up multiple web servers, you will need to set up a Cloud Load Balancer to help route the traffic. This will ensure that one server doesn’t get overburdened with too much web traffic. Furthermore, it is easy to bring on more application servers and create another database server for mirroring. Finally, our recently launched Cloud Networks functionality will allow you to insert isolated networks to enhance the security of your architecture.

Find out more about horizontal and vertical scaling in this post called Code To Scale.

Bringing on additional servers can be helpful if you have a big marketing campaign or to prepare for the holiday season where traffic is expected to be higher than usual. After that high traffic event is over and you begin to see typical traffic patterns, you can scale down to your original configuration so that you no longer have to pay for the additional servers that you brought online.

]]>http://www.rackspace.com/blog/windows-in-the-cloud-choose-your-own-configuration/feed/0Windows In The Cloud: The Various Flavors Of Migrationhttp://www.rackspace.com/blog/windows-in-the-cloud-the-various-flavors-of-migration/
http://www.rackspace.com/blog/windows-in-the-cloud-the-various-flavors-of-migration/#commentsTue, 30 Oct 2012 19:00:35 +0000http://www.rackspace.com/blog/?p=24444As you begin exploring the cloud and how it can help your business, you might be wondering, “So how do I migrate from my on premise Windows server over to the cloud?” There are actually many different ways that you can perform this migration that are similar to what you would do in migrating to another dedicated environment.

One way is to set up your favorite File Transfer Protocol (FTP) application and take data from your on premise server over to your cloud server. You can also use some of the built in tools that Microsoft has for Internet Information Server (IIS) and Microsoft SQL Server to migrate that information over to the cloud. Furthermore, you could set up Database Mirroring and have a database on premise and mirror and replicate that data to a database server in the cloud.

However, if you are looking for additional assistance, you can reach out to one of our Cloud Tools partners who specialize in migrations. Companies like Racemi or AppZero have the knowledge and the experience to help you get over to your new Windows cloud server. Finally, we have internal teams at Rackspace that can assist with some migrations for new customers choosing a managed cloud account. Simply contact us once you’ve established a new account and we are happy to discuss options with you.

]]>http://www.rackspace.com/blog/windows-in-the-cloud-the-various-flavors-of-migration/feed/0Hybrid Configurations: Put Some Of Your Windows Footprint In The Cloudhttp://www.rackspace.com/blog/hybrid-configurations-put-some-of-your-windows-footprint-in-the-cloud/
http://www.rackspace.com/blog/hybrid-configurations-put-some-of-your-windows-footprint-in-the-cloud/#commentsTue, 23 Oct 2012 19:00:30 +0000http://www.rackspace.com/blog/?p=24232Many people want to get into the cloud, but they don’t necessarily want to go all in with their configuration. These folks are interested in learning about and using the new technology, and they want to know if they can put a portion of their Windows footprint in the cloud. With Rackspace, the answer is “Yes.”

We have a special offering called RackConnect that lets customers split their configuration to have a portion of it in the cloud and a portion of it on dedicated gear. For example, you could have your load balancing and web servers in the cloud and keep your application and database servers on dedicated gear. RackConnect acts as the bridge between the two environments and allows network traffic to flow from your cloud environment back to your dedicated environment.

With RackConnect, you can take advantage of the flexibility and scalability of the cloud while maintaining a dedicated presence. For example, if you have a big marketing promotion coming up, or if you are prepping for the holidays, the cloud could help scale your web servers for the high traffic event. Once that event is completed you can scale the portion of your configuration in the cloud back down to handle the normal traffic, helping you achieve some cost benefits.

]]>http://www.rackspace.com/blog/hybrid-configurations-put-some-of-your-windows-footprint-in-the-cloud/feed/0Using The Cloud For R/D On Your Windows Servershttp://www.rackspace.com/blog/using-the-cloud-for-testdev-on-your-windows-servers/
http://www.rackspace.com/blog/using-the-cloud-for-testdev-on-your-windows-servers/#commentsTue, 16 Oct 2012 19:00:47 +0000http://www.rackspace.com/blog/?p=23462How many times has this situation happened to you? All the sudden you have this great idea that you want to test out, but you need some server space. Because you are building it for a Windows environment, you think it would be complicated with the licensing and procurement to get a server up to test out your idea. Frustrated, you talk yourself out of the idea and decide not to proceed further.

Or what about the situation when it is time to roll out new code to production? You have everything ready to go, but because you don’t have enough servers for a proper research environment, you aren’t exactly sure if the code is going to behave. You cross your fingers and start the deployment, hoping that nothing major blows up in your face.

In the past, some businesses avoided having a research or development environment because it was costly. When it was time to tighten the belt businesses focused on maintaining the production environment, not on having a R/D environment. Furthermore, if you were able to secure a R/D environment, it took a long time to get a server online. The cloud has changed all this.

With the Rackspace Cloud powered by OpenStack, you can rapidly standup research and development servers. No longer do you have to wait for the paperwork to go through to get a server stood up. Literally, all you have to do is sign up for an account and standup a server that can be available to you within minutes to test and develop on.

The cloud is perfect for research and development because it is cost effective. Since the cloud is on a pay-as-you-use pricing model, you could spin up a server for a day, week or month, test some code and then spin it back down. You would only pay for the time that you use that server instead of having to actually purchase a server for testing.

A final benefit of using the cloud for research and development is that it is easy to bridge a R/D server to a production server. If you’ve tweaked a R/D server to the point where it is ready to go to production, you could take a snapshot of that server and utilize that image to build a production server within your cloud configuration.

As you can see, the cloud is the perfect place to do research and development on Windows servers. If you have any other questions, be sure to get in touch with us here at Rackspace and visit the blog next week for my post on architecting Windows servers in the cloud.

]]>http://www.rackspace.com/blog/using-the-cloud-for-testdev-on-your-windows-servers/feed/0How Windows In The Cloud Can Save You Moneyhttp://www.rackspace.com/blog/how-windows-in-the-cloud-can-save-you-money/
http://www.rackspace.com/blog/how-windows-in-the-cloud-can-save-you-money/#commentsTue, 09 Oct 2012 19:00:22 +0000http://www.rackspace.com/blog/?p=23459While scalability and flexibility are compelling reasons for businesses to move to the cloud, another key item is the cost savings. By moving your configuration to the cloud, you can realize some of the following cloud cost benefits.

Hosting your business on premise can be a huge upfront financial investment; purchasing multiple servers and network devices can be a rather high initial cost. By hosting your Windows servers in the cloud, you don’t have to buy dozens and dozens of servers. Instead, you can spin up these servers instantly in the Rackspace Cloud powered by OpenStack without having to procure any hardware.

This leads me to the second point: utility pricing. With the cloud, you pay for only the computing resources that you use. For example, if you have a big marketing event and you need to scale out your web farm, you can do that and pay for those servers only while you need them. After your big marketing event is over (maybe you needed to ramp up for the holiday season or to support a commercial in the big game) and the traffic has subsided, you can take the servers that handled the extra traffic offline and no longer have to pay for them.

Finally, a special offering that we have at Rackspace is Managed Cloud Support. If you choose this tier of support, you will get a team of system administrators and account managers to be part of your IT team to help you administer your Windows cloud servers at Rackspace. This support offering is valuable because our Managed Cloud Rackers can partner with your business to give advice in capacity planning, guidance on how to scale in the cloud, help configure your environment and assurance by monitoring and backing up your site. This just scratches the surface of the types of activities on which you can partner with our Managed Cloud Rackers.

These are some of the cost benefits on moving to your Windows servers to the Rackspace cloud. If you have any other questions, be sure to get in touch with us here at Rackspace and visit the blog next week for my post on the advantages of the cloud for test and development on Windows.

]]>http://www.rackspace.com/blog/how-windows-in-the-cloud-can-save-you-money/feed/0Windows In The Cloud Is No Different Than On Premisehttp://www.rackspace.com/blog/managing-a-windows-server-in-the-cloud/
http://www.rackspace.com/blog/managing-a-windows-server-in-the-cloud/#commentsTue, 02 Oct 2012 18:23:55 +0000http://www.rackspace.com/blog/?p=23455Working as a manager in customer support at Rackspace, one question that my team often gets from business owners, “Would managing my Windows server be different on the cloud?” The answer is, “No, it is exactly the same!”

You or your IT team would manage your Windows cloud server the same way that you would manage it in an on-premise environment. The first step would be to create a remote desktop protocol session into that server, and once you are there, doing different tasks on your server in the cloud is the same as doing it with a dedicated machine. Adding an IP address and administering your website via Internet Information Services (IIS) are the same.

If you are a business owner, wipe away any concern that you or your technical staff might have in administering a Windows cloud server; routine system administration is the same as what you would do with your onsite server. The biggest difference is that by moving to the cloud you get to take advantage of the scalability and flexibility that the cloud offers.

If you have any other questions, be sure to get in touch with us here at Rackspace and visit the blog next week for my post on some of the cost benefits of moving your Windows servers to the cloud.